I bought one of those 2025 Camry Hybrids when my Grand Cherokee became a nuisance. Absolutely zero reason to not buy a hybrid again - great efficiency, drivability isn’t really different, and no start stop because it can drive in EV mode at low speeds and from a stop. Hybrid is absolutely the way to go and will be like a gateway drug for people to move from that to PHEVs and EVs when the time is right.
I've mentioned this before, but I'll bring it up again. I was anti-hybrid & anti-EV up until the point that I met my wife. She is not a car person at all. 100% views them as an appliance.
Anyways, long story short...I ended up driving her grandmother's Prius in Florida and although it was not a fun experience I respected the MPGs that it achieved. When my wife moved here, she left her 3rd gen Prius for her sister and we bought an off-lease 4th gen Prius for her (I didn't want to take a gamble on the head gasket issues with the 3rd gen Prius). I also drove her grandfather's Model 3 at one point too. I understand why so many people like hybrids, and even EVs, as they make excellent appliances.
Other than the typical Toyota jank, our Prius has been rather reliable. We've replaced the 12v battery, tires, brakes, and oil changes since we've had it.
Even last night as I came home from getting gas in the Prius and noticing how much of that drive was done in electric mode, I was thinking about how I wish my KL had a hybrid system tacked on to it so that I would still have the V6 when I needed it, but when I'm facing the mind-numbing traffic of this area, I could be creeping along at 6km/h in electric mode.
However, just last week, on her way home from work, our Prius threw a CEL. It was several codes, and when I started to research it, it looked like a head gasket issue. Thankfully, upon further research and thanks to a Prius forum, it ended up being a problem that is happening on lots of Toyota hybrids where the coolant lines are run around the catalytic converter to help heat the coolant up faster in cold weather to improve emissions, and the part fails and all the coolant leaks out of the engine. Unfortunately, it's poorly designed and other than bypassing the coolant lines in that area, the only way to fix it is to replace the entire catalytic converter as the coolant lines are attached to it. There have also been 6+ month backorders for this part from Toyota.
The leak was so bad in our Prius that I went to the closest Toyota dealer, bought coolant for it, refilled the coolant, and a few hours later went back and it had all leaked back into the exhaust. The next day I took it to the dealer, refilled the coolant before limping it over there, and the coolant had all leaked out again at the end of the 7 minute drive, and the CEL had cleared! Anyways, the dealer was able to verify that it was the catalytic converter that had to be replaced, and thankfully it was still under warranty and there was even a few of them in the closest PDC, so the next day they had it all fixed up.
Other than the '07 Caravan that my parents had, we've always had little things that needed warranty repairs on our vehicles (my Caliber was a warranty disaster for FCA for LCAs alone lol). However, NONE of them were liable to completely take out the engine and leave you stranded like this. And with all of the current issues that Toyota is having, I can't say that I'm rushing out to buy a new Toyota...nor am I rushing out to buy a new Stellantis vehicle either tho lol.
tl;dr - all this to say that there is 100% a spot for hybrids, I6s, V6s, V8s & EVs in the Stellantis portfolio. I think that every Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram vehicle should have a hybrid option at least. I would personally love for there to be a hybrid Hemi option in something, but I'm an outlier most likely. But, let's also not pretend that there are issues with just about every new vehicle on the market today.
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